Having digested the different impact skills required to hit a long game shot, the next step is to begin to make it more intuitive. When you can, golf gradually becomes clearer, and it opens the way for more instinctive movement and a far greater ability to problem-solve.
Bundling together impact
In the previous section, The Purpose of the Swing, we separated the impact skills for the purpose of better understanding their effects. However, in order to help the brain perceive the task intuitively, we need to bundle them together into something the eye just "gets".
The widget
The widget in the picture in the image above, I designed to draw the golfer's attention to the centre of the face and to negate the loft (n.b. allowing for some helpful shaft lean). Together, they turn a golf club into a hammer head. If you then put a flat-edged pole in the direction you wish to create force, the task becomes implicitly obvious.
Start at impact
When I introduce this to clients, I'd start with preparing for a straight shot with say an 8 iron, as conceptually it's simpler. I ask them to address the end of the pole as it were the ball, and naturally both centring the clubface to pole, and squaring the face occurs. This is no mean feat by the way, as neither happen as a matter of course with the average golfer.
Then, I'll stand on the pole so it's immovable, and ask the golfer to apply force in the direction it's pointing. The resistance the pole puts up, automatically starts to draw out some of the impact qualities discussed in Collision Ready. You can see the golfer's body move from a static address position, to a much more dynamic and stable impact position.
The key thing when you do this, however, is that you experience the creation of aligned force, centred strike and shaft lean. Three impact skills for one.
With engaged repetition, this sensation becomes a massive, neon-lighted signpost for instinctive movement.